1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus used to fasten materials together using rivets. More particularly, the present invention is related to apparatus used to install blind rivets.
2. The Prior Art
In instances where two layers of material must be securely joined together, rivets often perform better than screws, bolts, and other types of fasteners. Rivets have found numerous uses in modern fabrication technology.
In particular, "blind rivets," or rivets which can be installed by one worker from one side of the work, are widely used. Blind rivets generally comprise a rivet with a bore therethrough and having a head, a shank, and a tail positioned on the shank opposite to the head. The head is formed so that it will grip the surface of the material being fastened. A mandrel is provided through the bore in the rivet.
In use, the tail of the blind rivet is inserted into a pre-drilled hole provided in the material. The rivet is set in the work piece by drawing the mandrel through the bore in the rivet. As the mandrel is drawn through the bore, the shank of the rivet expands and clamps the parts together. In some types of blind rivets the mandrel is then discarded, in other types, the mandrel is kept and reused.
Blind rivets have become so ubiquitous in the fabrication arts that numerous tools are now available to assist with installing blind rivets. Hand operated tools are useful in small scale work but power driven riveting tools are now the norm in industrial and commercial settings. Such power driven riveting tools can be powered from pneumatic, electric, or hydraulic sources.
While blind rivets generally perform well and are easy to install, efforts have been made to streamline the installation process. Most power driven riveting tools require that the operator insert a new rivet into the nose piece of the riveting tool each time a rivet is set. The manual loading of individual rivets takes a considerable amount of an operator's time.
In order to improve the efficiency of riveting operations, various apparatus have been proposed to automate the loading of rivets into the nose piece of riveting tools. One such apparatus requires the operator to insert the nose piece riveting tool into the rivet loading apparatus. Disadvantageously, the time required to move the riveting tool away from the work piece and to the loading apparatus can equal or exceed the time required to manually load a rivet.
In order to allow an operator to keep the riveting tool at the work piece while a new rivet is being loaded, other rivet feed apparatus have been made available. Some of these apparatus utilize a large floor mounted console (e.g., twenty-five pounds) which contains a large supply of rivets. Pneumatic power forces the new rivets through a tube to the nose piece of a pistol unit where the rivets are one-by-one loaded for use. Such large units lack portability, are expensive to acquire and maintain, and often require the purchase of rivets and supplies from a single source.
These and other drawbacks are inherent in the rivet feeding apparatus available in the art. In view of the drawbacks found in the present state of the art, it would be an advance in the art to satisfy the long felt need to provide an automatic rivet feed apparatus without these drawbacks.